Archive for May, 2013

Atlanta (CNN) — “You take an elevator to the top level of the Regal Atlantic Station 16 movie theater, round a corner, enter through a security-coded door and head down some steps.

There it is: a wide, nondescript corridor interspersed with HVAC equipment and, more important, several giant slabs of electronics and server stacks. The touchscreens near each slab tell the story: “The Hangover 3,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Fast and Furious 6.”

This is the movie projection room, circa 2013.

What, you were expecting a black-walled compartment littered with film canisters and stray bits of celluloid and a dissolute, chain-smoking movie buff monitoring a clacking projector?”

“Cooke Opticsannounced that it will expand its factory in Leicester, U.K. and hire additional employees to accommodate a growing demand for its hand-crafted lenses.

The company plans to add an additional 300 square meters, which will house more assembly and projection facilities as well as an R&D laboratory. A 10 percent increase in the workforce will be required to fuel the expansion.

A growing order book for Cooke’s new range of Anamorphic/i lenses, which were launched to great acclaim at NAB 2013, as well as continuing demand for the popular miniS4/I, 5/i and S4/i ranges, have necessitated the factory expansion.”

“The Cannes Film Festival has finally come to an end, and the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, went to Blue is the Warmest Color (also known as La Vie d’Adèle: Chapitre 1 & 2). The film, a small intimate love story, made history for a number of reasons, including being the first Palme d’Or winner based on a graphic novel, as well as the first film shot on a Canon digital camera, specifically the Canon C300. Click through for more on the film and some clips below.

(…) While most previous Palme d’Or winners have been shot on film, the last two years have seen films shot only on digital — certainly a sign of the times. It’s definitely interesting that the production chose the C300, most likely for its ease-of-use, low-light abilities, and flexibility on set, as they recorded internally to CF cards.”

(…) “We feel like we’re moving in the opposite direction of where everybody else is going with digital cinema,” Mansouri said. “At Radiant Images, we’re lasered in on simplicity in design and operation, ease of use, small form factor, versatility. It’s a new language of cinema and we are helping artists express themselves and achieve their vision with these new, uncomplicated tools.”

The Novo digital cinema camera – the entertainment industry’s newest small form factor action camera – is a prime example.

Co-created by View Factor Studios and Radiant Images, the lens-friendly Novo is viewed as an ideal solution for professional filmmakers enamored with the capabilities of the GoPro Hero3 but stymied by cinematic limitations.

Key features of the Novo include a C-mount lens system plus a PL mount adapter, back focus adjustment, and exposure control capabilities that open up a wide-range of artistic possibilities for cinematographers and camera operators. The auto exposure function standard with the GoPro can be disabled on the Novo, permitting cinematographers to use the lens to manually adjust the aperture. The Novo achieves this while retaining all the key functionality, versatility and accessories of the GoPro Hero 3.”

The Coloristos ColorCast is a monthly podcast about Film and Television Color Grading, Color Science, and Post-Production. If you’re interested or involved in color grading, finishing, and digital intermediate post-production, this show is for you.

“In this Episode of the ColorCast, the Coloristos discuss round trip workflows. How to get from FCP7, Avid and Premiere into your color session? What are the potential pitfalls? The Coloristos all share tips on geting from app A to app B, and back; and when a one way ticket is your best option.”

The Coloristos are:

• Josh Petok, a colorist working on reality and episodic television in Los Angeles.

• Juan Salvo, a colorist and online editor for films and commercials in New York.

(…) “The camera is a tool, but the glass serves as your eyes into the story.”

The lens’ traits can help tell your story. The look and feel of lenses, their characteristics of color and contrast rendition, are all relevant factors. For example, some lenses are cold, some have warmth, and many are yellow. My choice of lenses was paramount when I was slated to shoot The Greatest Game Ever Played. It was a period piece that took place between 1888 and 1912. Bill Paxton, the director, and I were both fans of the FSA (Farm Security Administration) photos featuring photographers Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. They were mainly black and white images. There had just been some 1600 Kodachrome prints that were discovered in a trunk in someone’s attic, and they were reprinted in a book called Bound for Glory.

We chose this style to be the look of the movie. We worked to test every lens to try and recapture this imagery. We tried Panavision Primos, Cooke S4s, old Baltars, and Cooke Pancros. Ultimately, Bill Paxton and I settled on the Panavision Zeiss Ultra Speed Primes.”